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A marketing event is an ideal way to interact one-on-one with current and potential customers. In a world saturated by digital, a marketing event creates a valuable personal relationship between your business and your ideal client. Even better, a marketing event can do more than build strong relationships, it can help you generate leads. New leads are the lifeblood of every successful business. They strengthen your portfolio and help the business grow. What is a qualified lead? Knowing which attendees are qualified leads and which are just along for the ride ensures that your time and money is spent efficiently. Identifying qualified leads lets you tailor your pipeline to those potential clients. Don’t turn someone offer by aggressively following up when a lighter touch is needed. And don’t lose out on potential customers by failing to follow up with someone who is on the fence. So how do you tell if someone is interested? They ask a lot of questions. They opt-in to receive emails or follow up information. They post about your event or company on social media. They try hands-on demos. Usually, the more touch-points a lead interacts with, the warmer that lead becomes. So create multiple opportunities for attendees to engage with you. That can be through presentations, demos, Q&A sessions, social media sharing, opt-ins and more. Knowledge is power Getting the most out of your event marketing starts with gathering as much data as possible about your attendees. Go beyond who showed up and who didn’t. Keep track of who attended which parts of the event and who was most engaged throughout the process....

When it’s time to plan a marketing event for your business, which is the more cost-effective option; hiring an outside event manager or using your internal marketing team? Your first instinct might be to choose the internal marketing team. After all, you’re already paying their salary so there’s no need to hire someone else. But not so fast. Using your internal team can cost you money in the long run. Sure, the up-front cost will be absorbed in payroll, but your ROI is likely to suffer. Here’s why. The benefit of focus First, let’s assume your marketing team is like every other marketing team on the planet. They’re busy managing multiple complex projects with competing timelines. If you task them with coordinating an event, they’ll be handling the details in between fielding sales team emails, writing a script for the radio ad, and setting up a content calendar for the next three months. Meanwhile, an outside event manager is focused on your event. She takes the detail work off the shoulders of the marketing team but still collaborates with them on the big picture marketing goals. While your in-house marketers are generalists, your event manager is a specialist. All of her energy and talent goes into a meticulously planned event that surpasses your goals. Expertise and proven connections Everyone has heard the axiom, practice makes perfect. While your in-house team might organize one or two events a year, an event planning professional has dozens or even hundreds of successful events under her belt. She knows what works and what doesn’t and brings you the benefit of her expertise. Experienced...

As the online space grows ever more crowded, in-person events are becoming more essential than ever. They offer the valuable opportunity to speak directly to your target audience and form in-person connections with them. At an in-person event, you can get immediate feedback and control the customer experience in a unique way. This is why event marketing is an essential element of your marketing mix. You Build an Emotional Connection People come to your event because they’re interested in what you have to offer. Basically, they’re self-selected as the best possible audience to receive your brand message and ultimately buy your product or service. Instead of talking to the internet at large or every reader of a newspaper or the drivers going by on the highway, you’re speaking directly to your target demographic. You can use that opportunity to build an in-person connection that feels more immediate and personal than other forms of marketing. In-person events build an emotional connection with attendees, as Howard Givner explained in an article from Entrepreneur. Givenr says that companies can leverage the connection guests built at an event, cultivating their emotional connection into an ongoing relationship. Even if attendees don’t buy right away, they’ve become warm leads, primed for a sale. You Get Immediate Feedback At an in-person event, you have an ideal opportunity to get immediate feedback on your product or service. No need for focus groups or emailed customer surveys. Guests can try your product in real-time. You can address their questions right away. This give and take helps you break down barriers to the sale and show potential customers exactly...

Marketing your business through an event is a wonderful way for you to showcase your company in a unique way. Whether it’s promoting your company directly or celebrating a business achievement an event is the perfect place for networking and obtaining future customers. Putting on the right type of event can offer potential customers a relaxed and comfortable buying environment rather than a high pressured sales meeting. Like we always say at Executive Events, an event can take the place of a first sales call. With event marketing you are able to meet new people, build real-life relationships and create a lasting impact, therefore, creating the perfect place to generate new leads that will eventually become paying customers. Here are 5 great ways you can generate leads at your next marketing event: 1. Stop Being a Salesperson The purpose of the event is to ultimately obtain new customers, so you will eventually need to make the sales pitch – but don’t be too eager to do so. Take the time to have a genuine conversation with each person you meet. Ask them questions and get to know them. This will make them feel more comfortable, and will make it easier for you to pitch the sale once you know what’s most important to them and how you can help. 2. Plan Ahead Depending on the size of the event, it may be challenging to have a conversation with every potential customer. So, before the event, make a list of all the people to whom you want to talk. Whether they’re complete strangers, or you have met...

Hosting an event to market your business is a great way to gain publicity and connect with potential partners and customers. When doing events for marketing purposes it is imperative to collect crucial event data, which will prove useful for future analysis. Data analytics are becoming an important key to understanding and reaching consumers, therefore, making it a crucial for all businesses to understand. Plan Out the Event Data You Want to Measure Before you begin planning your event think about the type of event data you want to track. Whether it’s the number of people who attend the event verses the number of people who were invited. Or a itemized satisfaction rating. Every data point can be useful. Determining the type of data that will yield the most useful results for your business is important. Once you know the data you want to measure, create a plan to effectively gather this information. You should plan to collect data before, during and after your event. Create an email, survey or social media post before the event, so you have them ready to be sent out immediately after the affair. With each event you may modify your method of collection, so take the time to gauge which platform works best for you and which methods allow you to effectively collect the data most important to you. Gathering the Event Data Keep track of the number of people who are invited to the event and later compare it to the number of people who attended. To those who were invited but did not attend, send out a survey asking why they didn’t come to the...

Marketing for an event is an important step in achieving your desired audience and attendance goals. Most of this will occur beforehand, but it is crucial to continue marketing during the event as well. And one of the most efficient ways to accomplish this is through social media. There are numerous people and companies on social media today. Most notably Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. These social platforms are a great way to connect with current and potential customers. Advertising your business on these platforms, if done right, can be productive as well. Posting updates and pictures of what is happening during your event is a great way to get social engagement and extend your brand. Sharing interesting posts will also attract potential customers or partners. Hatch, a business accelerator based in Virginia, hosted and event named Execute: The Hustle Driven Speaker Series that showcased five entrepreneurs who each shared stories from their business journey. During the event, multiple Hatch employees posted information on four social media channels – Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. They posted pictures, gave information, shared what the presenters where speaking about and constantly updated their followers about the event. This not only brought attention to the event but also provided free advertising for the presenters and sponsors. Events that have a social media plan usually gain the most engagement therefore extending their brand further than the actual event itself. Here are some of the best, and easiest, ways to utilize social media and which ones you should be using: Facebook There are over 1 billion active users currently on Facebook, spanning the globe. With so many people constantly using the site everyday,...